Chapter 2 - Rough Start
Mei stares at the pokedexes and the Snivy.
What am I going to go?!
"I don't care if I get a pokedex or not but if those two go on a journey then I will too!" Hugh states.
"Why does it depend on us?" Kyouhei asks.
"Because, there is something I want to do and you two can come in handy!"
Kyouhei sighs, "So we're just tools?" Then he straightens up. "Well, if Mei goes then I'll go too!"
"W-W-W-WHAT?!" She jumps aback. "W-WHY ME?!"
"Because I wouldn't mind traveling with someone as cute as you!" Kyouhei grins.
Hugh facepalms, "Typical."
"So it's all on you Mei!" Bianca chirps. Everyone stares at Mei with makes her tremble even more.
"Um..."
"Hurry up! We don't have all day!" Hugh shouts, Mei gets startled by that then gets panicky.
"You shouldn't rush a girl like that." Kyouhei argues.
"Um..." Mei trembles. "Oh hey, look at the time! I gotta go before my mom notices that I'm gone!"
She dashes off, leaving dust behind. "Byyeeee!"
The four cough then look up to see Mei had already disappear.
"She can run." Cheren states.
"Isn't that obvious." Hugh says sarcastically.
"We need to go after her!
Kyouhei says then runs off.
"Chasing off after a gril.." Hugh scoffs then run off as well.
"Heeyy! What for us!" Bianca and Cheren ran after them.
...
"M-mom?!" Mei arrives to where she had left all the boxes on the ground to see her mom picking them up.
"Where have you been?" She fakes a smile. "You had me worry!"
"I'm so sorry!" Mei bows. "I got-"
"HEY!" Mei jumps at the scream.
Not him...
"You went off with a boy?" Her smile twitch.
"N-no!" Mei waves her hands in front of her. "You got the wrong idea!"
"Then please, explain."Her mom says, a hint of anger hinted in the words.
"Um um..." Mei says nervously. "I don't know where to start..."
"Start somewhere." Her mom demands.
"Hey!" Kyouhei catches up. "You left Snivy behind!"
He holds up the Snivy up to Mei.
"Mei Rosa..." Mei's mom's voice tremble in anger.
"Eep! Last name!" Mei bent down her knees and cover her ears for what is about to come.
"WHAT ON EARTH IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!" Mei's mom couldn't keep calm composure anymore. Kyouhei flinch at her scream then leans down. Snivy hops down calmly and walk over to her trainer.
"Is that your mom?" He asks. Mei nods silently and tremble in the wake of her mom's anger.
"She looks like she can be your sister!"
That comment had an effect on Mei's mom.
"Oh dear! You really think so?" Mei's mom put her hands on her cheeks and smile sweetly.
"Absolutely!" Kyouhei puts on a charming smile. Mei looks up with a blank expression.
"E-eh?" She had no idea what just happened.
"Mei, you can get up now."
Mei nods absentmindedly and wobble up.
"You can thank me later." Kyouhei whispers in her ears. Mei looks at him with a bewilder look.
"Mei! Kyouhei!" Hugh catches up too. Mei's mom began to snap again.
"Two...?" Her smile twitch. Mei sighs as her head drapes down.
How did I get into this...
"Outta way, outta way, OUTTA WAAAYYYY!" Someone came dashing towards them.
"Bianca!"
Mei barely looks up when she is knocked into the nearby fountain.
"Mei!" Kyouhei, Hugh, and her mom shouts in unison. Mei sits up from the water and cough some out.
"Why me..."
"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry!" Bianca bows repeatedly.
"You really need to work on that Bianca." Cheren jogs up to them. Kyouhei and Hugh helps Mei out of the water. She looks at herself.
"A-achoo!" Mei sneezes as a breeze comes. She shivers and hug herself.
"Let's get you changed before you catch a cold." Her mom sighs. Mei nods and she starts walking towards her house.
"You guys may come as well." Her mom says.
"Hey...aren't you..."Bianca says, beginning to recognize her.
"We'll chat once we're there.
She says calmly. Bianca and Cheren nods, upon returning Snivy into her pokeball, they followed them. The two boys stare at each other, wondering what is going on.
After changing into similar clothes and drying her hair, Mei walks absentmindedly down stairs and into the living room. She hears chattering so she looks forward to see Kyouhei, Hugh, Bianca, and Cheren al sitting on the couch. Her mom coming from the kitchen with tea.
"Sorry, we just moved in so the place is still full of boxes." She says.
"It's all good!" Bianca chirps.
"By the way Bianca, your eyes are in such a beautiful color of emerald!" Kyouhei compliments.
"Thank you!"
Cheren tries to keep his cool and drink his tea but he had the cup in a death grip.
"There you go again." Hugh roll his eyes then finally notices Mei standing by the entrance to the living room.
"What's up with your hair?" Was the first thing that came out of his mouth. Everyone looks to where Hugh is pointing and finally notices that Mei had came it.
"My...hair...?" Mei looks absentmindedly up at her mess of brown hair and freak out.
"A-AAAHHHHHH!" She screeches while trying to cover the mess but it's impossible.
"For Arceus's sake, did you forget to think again?" Mei's mom puts a hand to her forehead. "Sometimes I worry about your future..."
Mei's face heats up and she runs up stairs.
"Forgive her, that child's mind wanders off sometimes." Her mom sigh in worry.
"Wow...her hair looked like a Vullaby had made a nest in there combined with frizzyness made by static shook." Hugh says. Kyouhei elbows his sides.
"Ow! What was that for?"
Moments later, they heard a scream follow by a series of thumps.
"Sounds like she trip off the stairs." Mei's mom shakes her head tiredly. "Maybe we should've got a house without stairs..."
All of them turn just in time to see Mei faceplant herself onto the floor at the bottom of the stairs.
"I-I'm h-here!" Mei sits up and rubs her aching head.
"Are you okay?" Bianca asks over by the couch. Mei nods nervously, walks over to where they are and sit down with her mom at the opposite couch.
"She's as clumsy as you." Cheren states.
"Eheheh..." Bianca sweatdrops. "It's been a while since I seen you Ms...ummm!"
"Yes, it has. And please you can just call me Natalie, you don't have to be so formal!" Natalie smiles. "I never got the chance to thank you for last time."
"How are this going with..." Cheren trails off. Natalie looks down and frown.
"Uh your daughter must have taken after you!" Bianca says, sensing the need to change the subject. "She has great battling skills!"
Natalie looks at her daughter. "You battled?...Using a pokemon?"
"Um..." Mei looks down and fidgets with her hand. "Y-yes..."
"How many times have I told you not to do that?"
"...Plenty..." Mei had her eyes hid under her visor and purse her lips. Kyouhei and Hugh exchange a confuse look wonder why Mei couldn't battle even though she is pretty good at it.
"I...won't do it again..."
"Hold on a sec." Cheren interrupts. "Are you sure you guys don't ever want to rely on pokemon ever again?"
"After what happened two years ago, yes." Natalie answers.
"Didn't the two dragons fought two years ago?" Kyouhei mutters, trying to figure something out.
"Um..." Bianca stands up and bow. "If you don't mind...I would like Mei to help with Prof. Juniper's research for the pokedexes!"
Mei and her mom blinks.
"What's this all of-"
"Please! Like Cheren and I did two years ago, I'm sure Mei will learn a lot on her travel!"
"I'm sure you have good intentions but I can't allow it." Natalie replies. "Mei is a nervous wreck! I'm worry that she can't survive out there alone!"
Mei hid her eyes under her visor again and frown.
"But she can learn while traveling!" Bianca adds in.
"Bianca..." Cheren furrow his eyebrows.
"You and Mei reminds me of how my papa didn't want me to go on my own and insist that I stay home." Bianca explains. "And I prove that I am more than capable of taking care of myself and making my own decisions!"
"You don't understand, what if someone-"
"Don't worry mom, I won't."
"Why can't and don't you want to go?' Kyouhei asks, his tone different than usual.
"Because...like mom said...I can't handle the outside world." Mei lies but Kyouhei can see straight pass that.
"Excuse me." Mei stood up and speed walk out, Kyouhei notices a glint of tear on her face.
"Please, choose another one to help with the research." Natalie plead. "Mei didn't-"
"Let's stop for now." Cheren suggests. "If Mei changes her mind, please contact us."
"Would you at least let Mei have this Snivy?" Bianca asks. "This pokemon have grown to like her."
Natalie stares at the pokeball for a long while and finally nods slowly. "You guys act older than you actually are."
"It's from the experiences." Cheren replies. "C'mon, let's go."
Bianca hands Snivy's pokeball to Natalie and followed Cheren out. Mei's mom looks at the two boys that are still in the room.
"I'm guessing you would like a word with Mei?" They nod.
"She's upstairs."
"Thanks!" The two headed up stairs and stopped in front of a room that have a sign saying [Mei's Room]
Kyouhei knocks on the door, "Mei?" Silence returns the knocking.
"I know you're in there, I heard the scraping of a chair."
"Go away."
"Aw c'mon Mei! Let us in!" Hugh shouts.
"Shut up you loud mouth pineapple head freak." She says through the door. "Don't you talk to me with so much familiarity."
"What?!" Hugh is taken aback. "Look who's talking donut head!"
"Okay...we'll just go." Kyouhei says, sensing it would be useless since Hugh would only make it worst. Mei watches, from the window, as the two boys leave from their house.
"I..." Mei curls up into a ball on her bed and doze off minutes later. The door to her room creep open and her mom places the pokeball on her desk.
"Hm..." Mei wakes up later to the sound of knocking. She turns her attention to her window, heading over to open it.
"What are you...!" She is flabbergasted to see Kyouhei standing on the roof of her room.
"C'mon!" Kyouhei grabs Mei's hand and pulls her out to stand by the window. "Tell me you don't want to go out to see this?"
Mei looks up to see a beautiful sunset. Kyouhei then promptly scoop her up and jump all the way down then starts running.
"Are you even human?!" Mei squeaks.
"This is nothing, I know someone who can jump off cliffs!" Kyouhei answers.
"EH?!" Mei looks with shock. "And where are you taking me?!"
"You'll see!" He grins. Running all the way to the other side of the city, he stops at the bottom of stairs.
"That's a lot of stairs..." Mei comments while think what kind of injury she will have if she trip and fall on this set of stairs. Kyouhei moves onto sprinting up while carring Mei and she wonders how anyone can b so athletic.
"I wanted to show you this!" Kyouhei says, putting Mei down by the rails. "This is Aspertia's famous Lookout point!"
The lookout overlooks a panoramic view of a scenic landscape featuring trees, a lake in the foreground, and a mountain range in the background. It took the breath out of Mei.
"It's so pretty!" She smiles.
"You look cuter this way!" Kyouhei grins. Mei gives him a startle look.
"D-don't give me that sweet talk of yours." She turns away. Kyouhei turns to the ladscape.
"Do you like this view?" Mei nods.
"If you travel, you'll see more places like this!"
Mei turns and stares at him, "Is this about me not wanting to go?"
"I'm wondering why a girl who can tie with a Pignite using a Snivy says she can't handle going off on her own!"
"And I'm wondering who in their right mind would jump of a two story building with a girl in his arms." Mei counters.
"I bet you can do that too." Kyouhei replies. "You ran pretty fast that time."
"Hmph!" Mei turns to the view. They both watch the sunset for a moment before Mei opens her mouth.
"It's not that I don't want to...I'm just scared..."
"Of what?"
"Of being around strangers and pokemon." Mei answers. Kyouhei reach out a hand to Mei.
"You wouldn't be if I'm with you."
Mei turns a little pink then steer her head away in annoyance. "How can I trust you? We just meet today and you took me out of me room without a warning!"
Kyouhei takes Mei's hand and puts something in it. "You can trust me."
Mei looks at her hand and sees a pink pokedex, she looks up to see him holding onto a blue one.
"How did you..."
"I asked Bianca for them, I told her that I would give it to you!"
"N-no! I-I c-can't!" Me stammers.
"Please," He put both of his hands onto Mei's shoulders. "It would be fun working on it with you!"
Mei stares into his eyes and absentmindedly said, "Kay..."
She covers her mouth, "Why did I just say that?"
"You agreed and there's no going back!" Kyouhei grins.
"B-but you tricked me!" Mei accuses.
"How about this, if I beat you in a battle then you'll come with me?"
"Um..." Mei pokes her finger. "I don't have-"
"Let's go, you needa tell your mom!" He takes Mei's hand and drag her to the stairs. "Wanna race this time?"
Upon hearing the word Mei puts on a competitive smile.
"I'm going to leave you in the dust." And she gets into a running position.
"Been there done that." Kyouhei says causally and gets ready too. Her personality changed.
"Go!" They raced down the stairs and to anyone's shock, Mei didn't trip on one and fall. Both of them stops at the same time at the bottom, panting.
"A tie." Kyouhei pants. Mei nods, holding onto her knees. They walk through town after catching their breath.
"Kyouhei!" Two girls call from across the street. All of a sudden, Kyouhei disappears in a blink and begin fluttering with the girls. Mei sweatdrop.
"Can I really trust this guy?" She mutters to herself. "His personality is...strange."
